Articles: pain.
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Pain intensity is a complex and dynamic experience. A focus on assessing patients' average pain levels may miss important aspects of pain that impact functioning in daily life. In this second of 3 articles investigating alternative indices of pain intensity derived from Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMA), we examine the indices' associations with physical and psychosocial functioning. ⋯ We suggest that alternative pain indices can provide new perspectives for understanding functioning in chronic pain. PERSPECTIVE: Alternative summary measures of pain intensity derived from EMA have the potential to help better understand patients' pain experience. Utilizing EMA for the assessment of Maximum Pain, Pain Variability, and Time in High Pain may provide an enhanced window into the relationships between pain and patients' physical and psychosocial functioning.
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Review Meta Analysis
Investigating the true effect of psychological variables measured prior to arthroplastic surgery on post-surgical outcomes: a p-curve analysis.
Patients' presurgical psychological profiles have been posited to predict pain and function following arthroplastic surgery of the hip and knee. Nevertheless, findings are conflicting, and this may be rooted in biased reporting that makes the determination of evidential value difficult. This ambiguity may have negative consequences for researchers and governmental agencies, as these rely on findings to accurately reflect reality. ⋯ The results highlight the importance of patients' psychological profiles in predicting surgical outcomes, which represent a promising avenue for future treatment approaches. PERSPECTIVE: The effects of P-hacking are difficult to detect and might be at the root of conflicting findings pertaining to the predictive properties of presurgical psychological variables on postsurgical outcomes. P-Curve analysis allows the determination of evidential value underlying these relationships and detection of P-hacking to ensure that findings are not the result of selective reporting.
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To evaluate the efficacy of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) combined with hyaluronic acid (HA) injections versus HA injections alone for the management of knee osteoarthritis (OA). ⋯ III (meta-analysis of randomized and non-randomized comparative trials).
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Mar 2021
Review Meta AnalysisOpioids for newborn infants receiving mechanical ventilation.
Mechanical ventilation is a potentially painful and discomforting intervention that is widely used in neonatal intensive care. Newborn infants demonstrate increased sensitivity to pain, which may affect clinical and neurodevelopmental outcomes. The use of drugs that reduce pain might be important in improving survival and neurodevelopmental outcomes. ⋯ We are uncertain whether opioids have an effect on pain and neurodevelopmental outcomes at 18 to 24 months; the use of morphine or fentanyl probably has little or no effect in reducing the duration of mechanical ventilation and neonatal mortality. Data on the other comparisons planned in this review (opioids versus analgesics; opioids versus other opioids) are extremely limited and do not allow any conclusions. In the absence of firm evidence to support a routine policy, opioids should be used selectively - based on clinical judgement and evaluation of pain indicators - although pain measurement in newborns has limitations.
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Review Meta Analysis
Quadratus lumborum block vs. transversus abdominis plane block for caesarean delivery: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.
Take-away message
- Analgesia post-caesarean section (CS) is of global importance, as both the most frequently performed surgical procedure, and one that is commonly associated with significant pain, impacting maternal experience.
- Fascial blocks, such as the transversus abdominis plane (TAP) and quadratus lumborum block (QLB), have been advocated for use in reducing post-CS pain. This network meta-analysis confirms the equivalent benefit of either block in improving post-operative pain in the absence of using intrathecal morphine.
- Although the QLB is advocated for its potential to reduce both somatic and visceral pain, unlike the TAP block, comparing studies investigating either block did not reveal any significant benefit of TAP over QLB.
- No analgesic benefit was found for either when intrathecal morphine is used (although TAP block may be associated with lower incidence of nausea, vomiting & sedation, in the presence of IT morphine).
- As is common to many meta-analyses, these conclusions are somewhat undermined by the moderate-to-low levels of evidence in the included studies.